L'Innocente, from '76, on DVD. Giancarlo Giannini as a jaded aristocrat and rake who kills his wife's baby son because he was sired by another man, then loses everything--his mistress (Jennifer O'Neill), his wife (Laura Antonelli), and his life. A well-acted film, well-directed by Luchino Visconti; it was his last film before his death, and a gripping tale. The difficulty with it is that it is based on an old, tired, mistaken, and finally vicious notion: you can't have morality without religion. To underline the point, the cynical, and atheist, aristocrat murders his stepson while the rest of his family and household is at a Christmas Eve mass. I would point out to the Catholoic Visconti, along with the screenwriters and the author of the novel on which the film is based, that a morality based on fear of divine punishment, or for that matter any kind of punishment, is no morality at all.
The acting must have been excellent to make it through a morality play like that
Yes, I’m certain I would have made it all of 10 minutes….